Question #1 Response:
I believe throughout my early adulthood that I have had many transformative experiences shaping who I am now. One of the biggest changes I have encountered that affected my personality was moving from the large family farm in Innisfail to downtown Edmonton. I was raised as a farm girl and as such, I rarely spent time in the closest city because it was about a half hour away. Outside of school, I spent my spare time helping my parents with the cattle and riding my horse. I had chores to attend to, animals of my own and responsibilities that kept me busy. I kept quiet throughout my school classes and spent most of my time with my family, reading or writing. None of these experiences prepared me for the hustle and bustle I would encounter upon moving to downtown Edmonton. I moved to the big city alone in 2012, in pursuit of my Commerce degree and was shocked by the differences that I faced. One has to react to situations very differently while living in the city, because of the amount of people that surround you. Living in the city, you encounter various types of people everywhere you go. One also has to be very careful to be safe around others and traffic. No more waking up to the sound of cattle and birds, it is now the sound of ambulances. The sights and sounds of the city are completely different than those of a farm.
This move has affected me by separating me from my comfort zone of family and farm animals. I am now employed as a lounge server, where I interact with people every day. I spend most of my spare time with friends, as opposed to on the farm. I am able to socialize more often, play sports with other students, I have developed a significantly wider vocabulary and I wear completely different clothes. My expression of self has changed as well, due to the historical nature of Edmonton and its people. Since I am living downtown, I am able to walk most anywhere I need to go, be it the mall, movie theatre or a restaurant. I am constantly interacting with others around me, through both work and university. This has helped me become more outgoing and extraverted and unleashed a lot of potential experience that was seemingly hidden by life on the farm. My education has also helped me develop a professional manner which will serve well when I am applying for future employment. However, I do believe that having responsibilities as a child have helped prepare me for the challenges I would be facing while receiving a university level education. This being said, I guess I got the best of both worlds and the unique experiences on both the farm and in the city have shaped who I am now.
Discussion Question:
The textbook mentions that throughout the study of personality, researchers and scientists have come up with many ways to categorize types of people. As we have read in Chapter 4, George Jung argued that people are classified as either extraverts or introverts. Extraverts prefer to spend time with others and enjoy company, while introverts tend to prefer solitary activities and withdraw to themselves when facing stress. Extraverts can also be defined as sociable, outgoing, talkative, lively and carefree, while introverts are defined as passive, careful, thoughtful, reliable and calm. Which of the two categories would you place yourself in and what characteristics support your belief that you fit into that category? What is an example of an event that you believe has defined yourself as an extravert or an introvert? Do you possess some aspects of both categories and if so, explain.